Faithful Followers

Monday, January 19, 2009

I tried to come up with a plausible excuse as to why I couldn't play. I couldn't say that I had laundry to do because my washing machine is broken. We just had dinner so I couldn't use the excuse that I had to cook. I could have told them that I had to work on my book. Hmm, honestly, I think I'd rather play Rock Band with the kids than to work on my book right now. I sighed, "OK, I'll play, but you have to promise NOT to make fun of me when I suck."

"We won't Mom! Come on! It's fun! Try the drums."

I sat down at the drum set. "How do I know which one to hit?" I asked as I looked at the four different colored drums.

"You just look at the TV." duh "Oh and if you see a yellow bar, you have to step on the pedal."

"I have to use my feet too? I don't think I'm that coordinated. If I have to use my feet, can I count this as exercise?"

My kids rolled their eyes at me and starting doubting their decision to let me join their band.

They pushed "play" or whatever it is you're supposed to push to make the song start. Colors went flashing across the TV screen at the speed of light.

"Which side am I on? Which one is me?!" I shrieked, afraid that I'd be kicked out of the band if I missed any beats.

"You're on the right, Mom! Follow the ones on the right! You're missing all of them! Hit the green one, blue, yellow, Mom, hit the blue and red now!"

I flung the drumsticks around wildly hitting anything and everything within 10 feet of me. I looked like a total spaz. I think Austin fell off my bed laughing at me. Thankfully, Jackson and Savannah were too busy playing guitar and singing to notice my total idiotness (yes, it's a word).

When we finished the song, my kids were only too happy to "let me go back to what I was doing".

"No way! I know what I'm doing now! Let me do another one! I understand how to do it. I'll do better! I promise!"

The kids relented and didn't kick me out of their rock band. And you know what? I did great! I'm the drumming queen, I tell ya!

Then the kids decided I should expand my horizons and play the guitar. That wasn't one of their better ideas. How is a person supposed to bend and contort their wrist to play that thing??? It isn't human, I tell ya! I never did well when I took guitar back in junior high for the same reason. Who can make their fingers move on the right buttons when their wrist is all twisted? It's not normal. And while you're bending your wrist in unnatural ways and trying to remember which finger presses which colored button, the colors are flashing by on the TV faster than your brain can send the signals to your mangled hand!

After that little exhibition, the kids put me back on drums where I rocked out.

"WOOOOOOOOOO! That was wicked awesome! Come on kids! Don't you want to drop out of school and take our show on the road? Come on! It'll be awesome!"

I think this is the point, they decided that Rock Band is not for parents.

Not for parents?! Heck with that! My 56 year old mom rocks the Rock Band guitar with my brother and sister (and, occasionally, me singing way the hell off key.) She even bought Guitar Hero Decades for the Nintendo DS I bought her for Christmas. I think it's awesome that you played it with your kids, and I'm impressed that you took to the drums that fast...they're the hardest ones straight from the get-go.

haha i'v enever played Rock Band.. but i tell ya guitar IS painful! its getting better now but i got tendinitis for a while when i first started! i still wonder at the guy who designed that thing sometimes though.

Dawn, try the guitar across your lap Jeff Healy style. That is what I have to do it is more like playing the piano that way. Go on the road? Next thing you know you will have a wild flower painted bus like the partridge family!!

Aww--too bad they kicked you out after all. If you could have talked them into the touring thing you could have switched TV shows and become the Partridge family instead of the Brady Bunch. Joe could be your Reuben Kincaid and Brooklyn could be a substitute for Simone (and no, I'm not implying she's a dog, but she would be a good mascot).

Hi Dawn, My son also got rock band 2 for Christmas. I am a singer and I can't sing to hardly any of the rock songs on there. I think they should invent Country Band next! I can just see a bunch of mom's being the Dixie Chicks. Kristine in Michigan.

*grins* In my house Rock Band is totally for parents! We're expecting our first (a little boy!) and my husband loves to play. I'm not nearly as good as he is, but I still have fun when he isn't trying to teach me how to get better. XD

You needed to pose some pics of you sitting at the drum set. That would be awesome.

It's vocals or nothing for me. My husband actually put up a video of me on drums on New Year's Eve at his Facebook page. I'm concentrating so hard on those flashing bars of color, I look like I'm angry enough to bite a snake.

It's awesome that you can play the drums well. My siblings and I, who by the way are all over 18 and two of them are married with multiple children, play every Saturday night. I have attempted the drums and it is too hard. So props for being able to rock out on the drums!!!

I can't believe your kids didn't want to go on the road with Mom in a rock band. If I had ever told my crew they could quit school and take their band on the road, they'd have let me play whatever instrument I wanted whether I was any good or not. Some people just don't appreciate real talent. So wait till they graduate and go solo. %)

OMG! My kids got Rock Band and Guitar Hero for Christmas, and my husband has probably spent more time on it than they have! One day over the winter break, it was 1pm and my daughter was still in her pajamas because Daddy was insisting she stay and play JUST ONE MORE SONG. Then another ONE MORE SONG. It's addicting!

I'm the drummer at my house and I totally rock out. My 62 year old dad plays the guitar or bass and he does awesome. It takes some getting used to (and no amount of torture will get me to sing) but it sure is fun. As an aside, if you're ever upset with Joe, start boxing. I knock my husband out every single time. :)

I'm sorry if this has been commented on before, but did you know when you click on your name in Amazon it brings up your book AND "White spot syndrome virus in frozen shrimp sold at Massachusetts supermarkets.: An article from: Journal of Shellfish Research"? You have a very broad range of areas of expertise Miss Dawn! :-)

LOL!!!! We got it for Christmas too and my 10 yo and I have had a blast playing together. She is even looking forward to another adult coming over this weekend for the purpose of playing Rock Band with her and myself. Rock on Dawn!!!!

My husband and I played for the first time in the middle of Circuit City! How dumb did I feel when he had to reach over and show me how to play the guitar! Oh ya mean I have to hit the colored bars AND strum it??!! At the SAME time?!! I was laughing so hard I was crying! Now we are trying to find it so we can continue the good times in the privacy of our own home.....

Totally random-I was just thinking about how you call your brood a "6 pack" and about how you're trying to get in shape...so I guess you could technically say you have "6 pack abs!" Bwa-ha-ha I crack myself up. I think I'm going stir-CRAZY with all this cold weather, :)

I purchased the latest issue of Good Housekeeping yesterday and was sitting there reading it when I realized on the following page was....YOU!!! Wow.....you are famous! LOL!!! Can I have your autograph? Hee Hee

Did I read that right? Your washing machine is broken???? EEK... run away, run away... the laundry monster is going to gobble you up! How--in--the--world-- are-- you--surviving? I know... just make your kids wear their clothes inside out on every other day? oh yeah, right. They already do that. (joking....) When are you going to get a new one? Now, I'm really worried about you!

Dawn, don't laugh. But we got the game for my step kids last year and decided to "try it" before giving it to them (they live out of state...the game was actually going to stay with us anyway, so we didn't really feel too bad about "checking it out"). Bad idea. LOL. I seriously got tendonitis from playing the Rock Band guitar. My left arm (elbow) hurt so bad, I had to see an orthopedic surgeon and get a cortizone shot. When I told the nurse the ONLY thing I had done differently with my left hand (was play the Rock Band guitar) he yelled out to the Doctor "Got another Rock Band in here!" I have since laid off the guitar for fear of getting another SHOT...ugh. But to hear you say that about your wrist...that brought back that memory...LOL. Seems as though the game should have a warning "may cause tendonitis....make sure you hold guitar properly." LOL